Shut Up and Dance’s main problem is its protagonist. He’s too wishy washy to be compelling, and his dilemma — being unwittingly recorded while masturbating and subsequently blackmailed with the video — happens every day around the world. The episode’s anxieties don’t push the boundaries of modern technology nor do they challenge the way we see that technology. The plot and protagonist are dull, the thrust of the plot ultimately suspense-less. The only plus side, for “Game of Thrones” fans, is seeing fan favorite Bronn star in something else.

Barely an episode of "Black Mirror" at all, Crocodile feels more like a poorly executed British crime procedural than a philosophical look at modern technology. Tech only features tangentially in the narrative; really, it's a story about an unlikable person doing unlikable things. And it's not compelling enough to overcome that premise.

Nosedive comes the closest to portraying how technology already alters human interaction — which is perhaps why it’s one of the series’ weakest entries. Starring the bubbly Bryce Dallas Howard, Nosedive shows society’s obsession with “liking” things to the extreme. People are constantly rated — at the coffeeshop, in customer service lines, even at social functions — rewarding fake politeness over genuine interaction. Considering we’re already in a rating-based world, Nosedive doesn’t make you think any harder than your usual reservations about social media.

Directed by Jodie Foster, Arkangel rehashes technology (and consequences) from other episodes. Instead of adults, however, it shows what happens when children are constantly monitored by their parents. The outcome is far from shocking. Rosemarie Dewitt's real and relatable portrayal of the mother saves this episode from the bottom of the list.

The Waldo Moment, released in 2013, improved greatly in the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In it, a vulgar cartoon bear from a late-night show — think Triumph the Insult Comic Dog — takes on a local election to point out the hypocrisy of the candidates. Before long, Waldo the bear is a candidate himself, much to the ever-increasing horror of the actor who voices him. Lines about Waldo being “the mascot for the disenfranchised” and a “global political entertainment product” sound now like a cautionary tale. Charlie Brooker read the political climate like a savant, even if the episode itself is only middling in quality.

Black Mirror saves its longest episodes for crime mysteries, and fans of police procedurals will find a lot to like in Hated in the Nation. When public figures are found dead immediately after being targeted for hate on Twitter, cops are left scrambling to find the assassin. The episode plays with the question of our complicity in hate speech online — and whether giving platforms to the people is really a good idea.

When Black Mirror goes in for straight horror, it’s never as scary as the insidious terror of its ordinary-life episodes, as evidenced by the jump scare-heavy Playtest. In it, a couch-surfing backpacker signs up for a gig with a video game company testing their new game. Armed with the player’s greatest real-life fears, the game tailors itself to those anxieties. It’s not hard to guess how it ends, and it’s not particularly scary. But it is a fun hour of TV, and a good “I told you so” to friends who are super into augmented reality games.

A fun series of Easter eggs more than anything else, Black Museum is one of the show's most direct homages to the Twilight Zone. There's a distinctly Rod Serling feel to the set-up: a roadtripper stops off at a crime museum to kill some time while her car is charging. In a series of vignettes, the curator tells the stories behind three items. It's fun to revisit the other episodes through the items, and the twist ending works.

Something like a dark version of Wall-E, Fifteen Million Merits’ referential script is helped by great casting. Daniel Kaluuya, who went on to star in “Get Out,” and Jessica Brown Findlay of “Downton Abbey” are wonderful. Both live inside a fully-enclosed world, riding stationary bikes to generate power. They’re paid in merits; accumulate enough and you can cash them in for chances to audition for an American Idol-style show. That mix of apocalyptic living with a sharp critique of reality TV is better explored in Brooker’s miniseries “Dead Set” (also available on Netflix).

Welcome to the evolution of dating: Testing out partners with an app that lets you know when your relationship is doomed to end. After dating enough people, the app then has the information to algorithmically match you with the "perfect" partner. But what if you think the app is wrong? Two sweet performances by the leads, Georgina Campbell and Joe Cole, elevate the episode tremendously.

An instance where Black Mirror's horror genre goes right, White Bear is 40 gripping minutes of stress and confusion. But when the screen goes black, the real horror is your own reaction to what you've seen: Because you're lying to yourself if you didn't enjoy it at least a little.

Men Against Fire is Black Mirror at its most Twilight Zone, a classic tale of the danger of turning people into monsters, both real and imagined. The episode follows a soldier called Stripe, who starts experiencing strange side-effects after his first combat mission. The “reveal” isn’t ground-breaking but, as always, it’s a thoughtful exercise in exploring how technology can make us better killing machines in war — and worse people in the process.

Jarring in the extreme, The National Anthem was one hell of a choice for a pilot episode. The setup is simple: A British princess has been kidnapped, and she’ll only be returned alive if the prime minister, agonizingly played by the always-brilliant Rory Kinnear, has sex with a pig on live TV. The episode, though unsubtle in the extreme, sets up the guiding angst for the entire series: Our obsession with the endless noise of entertainment is destroying society. The dozen episodes that follow this one play with similar anxieties, though never as starkly.

There's no middle ground with Metalhead: You're either going to love it or hate it. The sparse, black-and-white episode follows one woman struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic landscape. It's gritty, painful and gripping. Just don't expect it to be like other episodes of Black Mirror — and that uniqueness makes it great.

For viewers sick of the usual Christmas shlock, the Black Mirror holiday special is the ideal antidote. Jon Hamm, aptly cast as a slick dating coach, is stuck in a snowed-in outpost with Rafe Spall, his companion of five years. Despite their proximity, the pair seem to know almost nothing about each other — until Hamm’s character starts sharing his life story. Although Hamm’s the flashier of the two, Spall’s slow reveal is ultimately the more affecting, and chilling, performance. The perfect thing to make your blood run cold during the holidays.

The first episode of season four is the clear highlight of an otherwise mediocre season. It's part-Star Trek parody, part biotechnology nightmare, helmed by Jesse Plemons' excellent portrayal of a video game engineer gone mad with power. Even viewers who aren't Black Mirror fans will find something to like about this episode.

Don’t watch Be Right Back if you were planning on doing anything productive afterward: It’s so penetrating, moving and chilling, you’re going to need a few days to process it. After the sudden death of her fiance, Martha (Hayley Atwell) signs up for a chatbot that uses the texts and emails of your loved one to create a proxy to talk to. It’s supposed to ease the grieving process but, as Martha gets deeper and deeper into the false fiance, the lines between life and death, reality and fantasy, blur irrevocably. And lest you believe Be Right Back is a far-flung nightmare, it’s already happening in real life.

San Junipero often tops lists of best Black Mirror episodes — and rightfully so. It’s a poignant and sweet reflection on death and love. But that sweetness, unusual in the Black Mirror universe, perhaps gives it a status that elevates it unfairly. It’s one of a few episodes in the entire franchise that doesn’t leave you catatonic. And it’s the only episode you can happily rewatch time and time again. Not to say it isn’t a fantastic episode of television; it’s just not as incisive as our No. 1 choice. Which is..

One of the greatest episodes in sci-fi television history, The Entire History of You is terrifying in a life-altering way. It explores a world in which humans have adopted a body modification that allows one’s eyes to continuously film the world from their perspective — and rewatch that footage at any time. The idea is so useful, so powerful, that it’s easy to imagine Silicon Valley types pitching it. And normal humans embracing it. But the implications, both obvious and subtle, are enough to rip apart the world. Turns out, recording every moment of your life doesn't add more clarity; it only destroys the little uncertainties that make human interaction possible. Save The Entire History of You for when you’ll have an hour to lie in the darkness and think about it after the final credits roll. You’ll need it.

With all four seasons of "Black Mirror" available on Netflix, you might be thinking it's a good time to binge the show.

Of course, you're free to live your life. But we don't recommend binging them without putting long breaks in between each episode — extended exposure to the horrific truths of "Black Mirror" are apt to leave you catatonic. Or, at the very least, inspire you to take a hammer to your TV screen.

If you're still in the mood to revisit the best of "Black Mirror," here's our ranking of all 19 episodes — worst to best. If you're short on time, this might serve as an abridged list of what to watch. Or, if you've never seen the show and are looking for a place to start, it's a good list of which episodes exemplify the best of the anthology series.

Season four of "Black Mirror" premiered on Netflix on Dec. 29, 2017. Cast highlights include Rosemarie DeWitt, Georgina Campbell, Jesse Plemons, Jimmi Simpson and Babs Olusanmokun. One episode is directed by Jodie Foster and another is helmed by Tim Van Patten, of "Game of Thrones" and "The Sopranos."

To see our ranking of the best and worst "Black Mirror" episodes, check out the gallery above.